MLB plans to change IL rule

Honest question... Why would MLB have a problem with teams shuttling players between the Majors and Minors in order to keep players healthy? Seems like a good way to keep players in the game and on rosters. It also rewards teams for having and keeping more pitching depth in their systems.

I guess I don't see the problem they are trying to solve.
 
mfree80 said:
Honest question... Why would MLB have a problem with teams shuttling players between the Majors and Minors in order to keep players healthy? Seems like a good way to keep players in the game and on rosters. It also rewards teams for having and keeping more pitching depth in their systems.

I guess I don't see the problem they are trying to solve.
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It gives teams with a stronger AAA system a slight unfair advantage because they can game the 25 (26) man roster a bit more than other teams. It is trivial sort of but I can see it too.
 
Yeah, they should have just used another D word so we could still call it the DL. Distressed list or something like that.
 
mfree80 said:
Honest question... Why would MLB have a problem with teams shuttling players between the Majors and Minors in order to keep players healthy? Seems like a good way to keep players in the game and on rosters. It also rewards teams for having and keeping more pitching depth in their systems.

I guess I don't see the problem they are trying to solve.
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Not likely the main reason, but part of it could be the expense and player control. When you have guys as smart as AA (who learned from the Dodgers' guys) manipulating the 10-Day IL with Pitchers, it obviously takes away from the owners' bottom-line. You're going to be paying prospects major league salaries for those days someone's on the shelf. It's not a major expense, but it adds up over time just like lots of waiver claims for guys to sit at the end of your bench. Teams without the MLB-ready depth the Braves have also have to keep calling up the same prospect over and over for those spot starts (or roster-filler to be the last guy in the pen for a few days), meaning they'll accumulate service-time faster. AA was able to dodge this last season for the most part because he was able to rotate through Touki (still only has 140 days of service-time), Wilson (87 days), Wright (76 days), Weigel, and Ynoa (8 days). He can still do that this year when they add Davidson and De La Cruz to that mix. Very few teams have that luxury.

It won't kill you to start those clocks before the players are completely ready to be in the rotation since they're only going to fill-in for a start or two - especially when you can call a different one up depending on who's turn is next up like AA can - but paying those prospects the league minimum for the days they're on the roster rather than the $2,150/month AAA salary ain't exactly cheap.
 
bravesfanMatt said:
It gives teams with a stronger AAA system a slight unfair advantage because they can game the 25 (26) man roster a bit more than other teams. It is trivial sort of but I can see it too.
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I see the advantage, but I don't see why it is unfair. It just gives every team an incentive to build a stronger AAA team. The teams building stronger deeper rosters will always have an advantage. why penalize them for it?

To CLV's point, I think the cost is really just pocket change to teams who would likely be happy to give some young guys a chance to get their feet wet without making a commitment.
 
mfree80 said:
I see the advantage, but I don't see why it is unfair. It just gives every team an incentive to build a stronger AAA team. The teams building stronger deeper rosters will always have an advantage. why penalize them for it?

To CLV's point, I think the cost is really just pocket change to teams who would likely be happy to give some young guys a chance to get their feet wet without making a commitment.
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Right - sorta. The cost in $$$ likely isn't that big a deal on a yearly basis - definitely for us. The problem is, just how many teams have 5+ legitimate options in AAA that are both on their 40-Man Roster and can come up and make a spot start at any point without getting absolutely pummeled? The Angels second-highest ranked pitching prospect was in A ball last year. The Orioles had Rodriguez and Hall in A ball last year. The Red Sox don't have any close-to-ready arms other than Tanner Houck. And so-on and so-on. Everybody else has to call the same one or two guys up in these spots, and this will quickly push them closer to Super-Two status once they're up for good - which actually could drive owners' costs up down the road.
 
clvclv said:
Right - sorta. The cost in $$$ likely isn't that big a deal on a yearly basis - definitely for us. The problem is, just how many teams have 5+ legitimate options in AAA that are both on their 40-Man Roster and can come up and make a spot start at any point without getting absolutely pummeled? The Angels second-highest ranked pitching prospect was in A ball last year. The Orioles had Rodriguez and Hall in A ball last year. The Red Sox don't have any close-to-ready arms other than Tanner Houck. And so-on and so-on. Everybody else has to call the same one or two guys up in these spots, and this will quickly push them closer to Super-Two status once they're up for good - which actually could drive owners' costs up down the road.
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Yup. I get that. I see that the owners might want to limit the practice to avoid service time... but it seems a lot like signing one more FA. Teams who do that are better equipped to win.

No argument with what you guys are saying. It just doesn't seem unfair that a team willing to make that financial commitment be able to do so and benefit from it.
 
Yes. I will never get used to this injured list thing. Did baseball really offend people with the word disabled list? Maybe so. I mean NBA doesn’t have owners anymore so I guess the sensitive will eventually win.

Are the blue lines still called handicapped parking? Is handicapped still ok to say? I need to get educated on my trigger words before HR thumps me.
 
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